


Battle Mode

by TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Cecil is Inhuman, M/M, Self-Defense, Tentacles, but Cecil is only inhuman some of the time, commentfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-18
Updated: 2013-08-18
Packaged: 2017-12-23 20:52:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel/pseuds/TardisIsTheOnlyWayToTravel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The thing is, in this town where everything is strange and disturbing, Cecil doesn’t seem like much. Of course, Carlos thinks dazedly, later on, that probably should have been his first clue that Cecil is more than he seems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Battle Mode

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GuesssWho](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuesssWho/gifts).



> Answer to the prompt [here](http://nightvalecommunitykink.dreamwidth.org/822.html?thread=406838#cmt406838).

**Battle Mode**

The thing is, in this town where everything is strange and disturbing, Cecil doesn’t seem like much. Carlos means this in a good way: where everything is fascinating, and yes, a little thrilling, but also dangerous and frightening, Cecil feels reassuringly safe. Yes, he’s a little odd, but so is everyone in this town, and Cecil’s oddness is endearing rather than anything else. Carlos likes the way Cecil waves his hands around awkwardly when he’s talking and the way he’s so emotionally invested in everything and everyone in Night Vale, and his shy, enthusiastic smile is, Carlos privately thinks, _adorable._ So no, in this place where everything is dangerous and most things want to kill you, Cecil just doesn’t seem like much to worry about.

Of course, Carlos thinks dazedly, later on, that probably should have been his first clue that Cecil is more than he seems.

* * *

The first time it ever happened to Cecil, he was eight years old.

Everyone knew that the Sheriff’s Secret Police _hardly ever_ took a child, but it did happen, sometimes. More often than people liked to admit. Cecil, when he thought about it as an adult, suspected that this was part of how the Sheriff’s Secret Police acquired new members, but as a child, of course, he didn’t think about that. All he thought about at the time was that one of the Sheriff’s Secret Police was trying to take him, and he would _never see his parent again_

…and the next minute was very confused and violent as the member of the Sheriff’s Secret Police fled screaming from the tentacles and scything blades that were suddenly flailing at her.

After a little while Cecil shrank back down to his usual size, and when he looked he had hands again, the tentacles gone. Reaching up to feel his mouth he found that the fangs were gone, too, and when he blinked, the light looked normal instead of tinged with red.

Huh. So that was what his parent had meant, when they said he wouldn’t always look human like his father. It was nice to finally understand what they were talking about.

The next time it happened Cecil was fourteen, and a fire-breathing dragon was about to eat him.

Like before, all of a sudden the world shifted, and Cecil’s eyes were higher than they were supposed to be, and instead of his usual arrangement of arms and legs he had multiple tentacles and long, crooked limbs that ended in sharp, thin bladed claws. He was taller this time, closer to eighteen feet than the twelve he’d been last time. But then, he _had_ grown since then, so it made sense that he had grown in this form, too.

The dragon paused to re-evaluate. Cecil was a nice sort of boy, really, and he didn’t want to cause trouble, but he didn’t particularly want to be eaten today, either.

** [[Go AWAaaY,]] ** he said, in a voice that wasn’t heard through the ears but was instead delivered directly to the listener’s brain. Strange alien harmonies resonated within it.

The dragon reared back in alarm, and decided to find a meal elsewhere as Cecil whipped his clawed limbs back and forth threateningly. Cecil gave a buzzing sigh of relief as the dragon flew away. He changed back to his usual form soon after.

It’s only ever happened twice, and only when Cecil’s life is directly threatened, so Cecil doesn’t really expect it to happen again (although, you know, these things do sometimes happen), but then Cecil hears the City Council has declared Carlos a threat and– 

* * *

Carlos watches in stunned stupefaction as his shy, awkward boyfriend metamorphoses into a twenty-five foot tall monster made of tentacles and slicing… limbs (Carlos hesitates to call them arms) and tears through the entire City Council.

** [[hOW dAaRe YoU trRy AAND hARmmm CaaRLoS AND HiS PeRfECT hAir!!!]]  ** a voice that vibrates through Carlos’ brain shrieks. It’s eerie and inhuman and somehow, despite being in a register humans are not designed to comprehend, still sounds like Cecil. **[[I SaaaYY, hOoW DarEee YoUUU!]]**

The terrifying creature beyond mortal imaginings kills the last member of the City Council with one last swipe of a… claw… and stops, turning to peer anxiously at Carlos with one enormous, burning eye that, even in the middle of blind, unreasoning fear, reminds Cecil of Sauron in _Lord of the Rings._

…except that terrifying as it is, the eye is nonetheless unmistakeably worried, looking at him in concern, and the tentacles are waving in the same awkward way that Cecil waves his hands, and Carlos thinks, _this is my boyfriend._

“Cecil?” he croaks, and swallows. Then: “You never told me you can do that.”

As Carlos watches, the being in front of him slowly shrinks in size, tentacles and clawed arms melting away as it grows smaller and smaller, until all that’s left is Cecil, blinking at him uncertainly, and even though Carlos has just seen him turn into a Lovecraftian tentacle monster Carlos still can’t help but find him as adorable as he always does.

“Do you like it?” Cecil asks shyly, and what kind of absurd question is that? _Do you like it?_

“Cecil,” Carlos says sincerely, even though he’s shaking from the aftermath of absolute terror, “I find it _fascinating_.” Cecil beams at him, and he adds, “Although, I should probably sit down,” right before his legs give out.

It’s okay, though, because Cecil catches him.

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Battle Mode](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3560855) by [themusecalliope](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themusecalliope/pseuds/themusecalliope)




End file.
